Buildings comprising a wooden or steel frame on which pre-formed cladding panels (such as aluminium panels) are mounted to form a non-load bearing exterior facade are known. Such buildings can be erected quickly and more cheaply than brick or block facade buildings.
The method of building with such panels involves taking measurements of each required panel from the building frame onsite and the required sized panel cut offsite with specialist cutting equipment before fitting the panel back onsite. This process may need to be repeated until all the required panels are installed. The disadvantages with such building methods are that they are time consuming, labour intensive and costly.
In addition, the current method of building with pre-formed cladding panels fitted to a building frame involves weather sealing the panels with silicone or such like. The disadvantage of this is that the silicone can break down after a period of time (such as 10 years) which then requires the panels to be resealed periodically, which can be inconvenient in terms of time and cost.